Wassup world?, welcome to my column at ‘Tha Real’. I’m here every couple of weeks to discuss, point out or just sound off about things that are bothering me right now in hip hop. Anything I write is not to be taken as disrespectful but as constructive criticism so don’t go emailing me saying ‘Yo so and so’s the bomb.’ or ‘Stick your opinions up your ass’, cos its just that, MY opinion as a straight up hip hop fan who’s got an opportunity to get my ideas to you just like any paid journalist or critic.
If you don’t like what I say I’m not forcing you to read it but I want your feedback whatever, negative, positive, your ideas, updates and whatever's bugging you at the moment......so lets get on with it.
Hip hop is basically the only form of music that can easily gel with any other type of music out there, its all been done whether its classical, jazz, R'N'B, pop, country, rock and even house music. Its hip hop's versatility thats enabled it to live on, experiment, expand and push the boundries of modern music while still sounding fresh with every new tracktry and find another type of music that has so many sections or definitions and you'd find it hard to match the versitility of hip hop.
Forever searching for new creations, sounds and beats it has now turned to Jungle and Drum'N Bass looking for new inspiration. Don't get confused, this ain't dance or house music outta Chicago, this was created in the depths of London Clubs early in the '90's and has since been nurtured and propelled by such artists as Goldie and Adam F. later on in the decade.
If you don't know what its sounds like, imagine classic hip hop beats skipping at lightening speed with an ambient and relaxed sound spinning underneath the beats to create something that can be both hectic and fast but at the same time its underlying current is tottally chilled out. Its not that far removed from hip hop itself in theory, theres no thin line between them but obvious comparisons can be made in their structure and energy. The marriage between the 2 is nothing new either, where do you think most Jungle artists get their inspiration from?, you guessed it, they grew up on hip hop as well as a mixture of other genres of music to gel this sound together but hip hop is the primary force in their music.
Jungle remixes have been made of hip hop tracks and they have been received with open arms, headz stateside may not know these exist cos they are very very underground in the UK, usually promo only or very rare to come by. The ones that stick out in my head are the remixes of Blahzay Blahzay's 'Danger' and Jeru's 'Ya playin' yaself', although not outdoing the original it gives the track a new dimension, a remix thats not the same-same. There hasn't been that many remixes though lately but its still been kept alive in other ways. You hear in some Jungle tracks samples of hip hop tracks whether its vocal or the music itself so its still there.
Things have been going on Stateside though, Jungles influenece is steadily spreading out of the clubs of Britain into the minds of the U.S. hip hop producer. You can't ignore that elements of Timbaland's spaced out loops owe a lot to Drum N Bass and Jungle's manic beat skipping. One of the biggest tracks in 98/99, Busta Rhymes 'Gimmie some more' is laced with tripping beats over a beautifully orchestrated loop courtesy of DJ Scratch. Then theres Method Man's 'Judgement Day', while not obvious, this track holds those subliminal beats that it owes to jungle.
Now in 1999, i'm seeing it spread even more. Reggie Noble AKA Redman hooked up with Roni Size (who won the Mercury music prize award for best album in 1997, a breakthrough for Jungle) for the last track on 'Docs da name:2000', you can't tell me 'I got a secret' sounds like anything else on the album, it sits right there at the end in its own original spot. But the latest outting, and a great one at that, has seen the influence on Philly's finest, The Roots. Knowing the fine art of live music on their single with Erykah Badu 'You got me', they know how to manipulate the sounds of jungle and have incorporated it at the end of this track, instead of slowing down what is a mellow track to begin with, they speed it up giving it that element of surprise. Hopefully a mix will emerge that has this beat going the whole of the way through the track but for now the Roots have proven that they are leading the way in breaking down barriers for merging these 2 types of music.
So is this a good thing?, is this the way forward?,Will it take over our music completely?.Who knows?, all i can say is that in order for our music to stay fresh, innovative and most importantly alive it needs to go in search of other ways of reinventing itself and if Jungle can do that for now then it shouldn't be held back, whos knows how far it will go in 1999?
- Philip Oliver
